"The Path of Zarathustra" (2015)

Trailer

"Mamaiji" (2011)- Full movie

"Anahita's Law" (2019) Full movie

The film is as much about an archetypical grandmother as it is about the personal story of Moti (Morvarid) Nadirshah Roowalla, the director’s Mamaiji(grandmother), who was born in Iran in 1927, and now lives in India.

The film is a portrait of a grandmother sans a realistic treatment, rather the film’s time and space is suspended in an artistic realm beyond the real and the unreal and therein lies it’s charm.

The filmmaker does not seek a passive viewing audience but gently wants to engage the audience’s sensibilities and emotions, teasing the audience with fragments of Mamaiji’s life story, then leaving it to them to complete.

There is no belief without believers. A young woman, Oorvazi, born into Zoroastrianism, the religion of her forefathers leaves the isolation of her remote home when her grandfather with whom she lives alone dies. He leaves her a mysterious message and an even more mysterious book. Oorvazi journeys to Mumbai, the city where the dwindling Zoroastrian community, an endangered species of believers lives. She is welcomed in her aunt’s house by her aunt’s adopted son who confesses that he still loves her.

The meaning of the mystery her grandfather has left her with is revealed in layers as Oorvazi comes across figures from the historical past of the Zoroastrians. The mystery of the book too is revealed. Are these figures and the magical book real or figments of a philosophical imagination? Does her quest end in love or in understanding – or are these interchangeable or ultimately the same?

The film takes its title from the ancient Persian Goddess, the mythological deity Anahita who is the deity of water, fertility, healing and wisdom. Anahita's Law is an attempt to redefine a woman's identity in the 21st century at this poignant moment in history & question certain fundamental beliefs and perceptions that exist in our patriarchal society in India.

Anahita’s Law, a monologue in which a single actor portrays the ancient Persian Avestan Goddess of the Waters and Parsi Zoroastrian characters from the past and today, is the dramatic presentation of the injustices that the Indian Uniform Civil Code should aspire to put right. Anahita stands for fertility, healing, and wisdom. Fertility is the gift of womankind, healing the tolerance they have shown to injustice for millions of years and wisdom which supplies the audacity to struggle and win.

Anahita’s law tells the stories of three Parsi women who lived through suffered and overcome the prejudices of biased tradition. The stories are told as recollection and action in a minimalist cinema tradition, the drama of recollection being portrayed in the landscape of the actor’s features. The understanding of prejudice abolishes it. The empathy with the victims of injustice aligns the audience of our film with their brave and inevitable struggle.

Copyright: Oorvazi Irani